A former teacher and foster parent is on trial for abuse that allegedly happened more than two years ago. Nicole Gomez-Vilchis, 29, is accused of abusing a 15-month-old girl in 2014. The child and her brother were placed in foster care with Gomez-Vilchis and her husband Hugo in 2013 when the children were removed from their parents' home due to drug use, the Macomb Daily reports.

Another audit has raised more concerns about the state’s foster care system. And though the Kansas Department for Children and Families appears to be addressing some of the shortcomings, state lawmakers need to continue to press for improvement and hold the agency accountable.

Capping years of efforts to stop California’s foster care system from overmedicating the state’s most vulnerable children, Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday signed a controversial bill that for the first time puts doctors who recklessly prescribe psychiatric drugs at risk of losing their medical license.

A quarter-century of federal oversight of the Department of Children and Families could end in a few years if the agency meets the terms of a new agreement with lawyers in a landmark child-neglect case from 1989.

Thursday, September 29, 2016

Ontario’s African-Canadian community has come up with a list of recommendations to improve a child-welfare system they say is systematically racist, lacks compassion and does not take into account African-Canadian culture and parenting styles.

At the Connecticut Juvenile Training School, where the tension is palpable, Re'Sean DuPree was known as a go-to guy among his fellow youth services officers, the men and women who watch over the young offenders during their every waking moment inside the sprawling detention center.

The number of lone refugee children in English foster homes rose by 50 percent in the past year, data showed on Thursday, prompting the U.N. children's agency to urge the UK to do more to help "unprecedented" numbers of children fleeing conflict.

Suspensions and expulsions at American preschools are doled out disproportionately to black students, boys, and especially black boys – a phenomenon that could be due, in part, to implicit racial biases on the part of their teachers, according to a Yale University study released this week.

When Lori Ann O'Cheek went to search for her birth records, she was told her files burned in a fire. When Carla Williams asked a different agency for her birth records, she too was told they burned in a fire. Likewise Trevor Bass. Likewise Jessica Sear.

While it is still available online, you should not miss out on this report by the German/French TV chain ArteTV on Norway’s controversial “Barnevernet“, a government agency that every year destroys thousands of families, taking children away from their parents on the basis of the flimsiest accusations.

Wednesday, September 28, 2016

An Oakland County man has been arrested on terrorism charges, after making threats to blow up the Oakland County courthouse and assassinate circuit court judge Lisa Gorcyca, the 7 Action News Investigators learned exclusively.

Last week the Department for Children and Families dealt with the controversy of a negative audit of the foster care services provided through the state. The report, released by the Legislature’s post-audit team, found many areas of concern regarding the safety of children in foster care in Kansas.

The union representing hundreds of children’s aid workers in Peel is accusing the local agency of trying to prolong the current strike by offering “strikebreakers” lucrative compensation and making no effort to rekindle contract talks.

A whistleblower in the Grace foster home abuse case in the South East has initiated High Court proceedings against the HSE.The Irish Independent reports that the case is being taken by a social worker, one of three people who made protected disclosures raising serious questions about the care of a young intellectually disabled woman.The woman, known as Grace, was left in a foster home in the South East for 17 years after health officials were first informed of allegations of physical and sexual abuse there.The proceedings are the second legal action against the HSE in connection with the Grace case.

In the 72 hours after Brad Pitt’s wife of two years, Angelina Jolie, blindsided him by filing for divorce September 19, newspapers and gossip blogs rushed to paint him as an angry, unfaithful villain. The person allegedly behind the reports: his wife. People in Jolie's inner circle “are running a smear campaign,” a source claims in the new issue of Us Weekly. The insider adds that the negative press reports are an attempt to discredit the 52-year-old War Machine star. Find out more in the video above, and read the details below.

Lucy* was only nine years old when she was first raped by her father and her uncle. It was an abuse she endured for years before her mother finally intervened – a intervention that likely was only sparked because she delivered a child.

Just a week after charges were laid against the foster family of murdered Queensland schoolgirl Tiahleigh Palmer, it’s been revealed one member of the accused Thorburn family still holds a blue card to work with children.

Another audit has raised more concerns about the state’s foster care system. And though the Kansas Department for Children and Families appears to be addressing some of the shortcomings, state lawmakers need to continue to press for improvement and hold the agency accountable.

A federal lawsuit filed Tuesday to stop the Oregon Department of Human Services from placing foster children temporarily in hotels and offices alleges the practice inflicts emotional trauma on kids and violates their civil rights.

The process of adopting a child in Ontario is so lengthy and convoluted that many hopeful parents are instead adopting abroad, depriving scores of children from experiencing the joys of a happy family life.

A Washington County man whose attempted suicide last year led him to being charged with molesting a teenage foster child entered an Alford plea Tuesday in Washington County Circuit Court to sexual solicitation of a minor.

The Irish travelers were in court again on Tuesday to try to get their children out of state custody. The families say a judge refused to move four kids from DSS's custody to temporary custody of a family friend.

Workers with the Children’s Aid Society of the Region of Peel (CAS), the agency for child services for the Peel Region near Toronto, are striking to get better work conditions — including improved safety.

Tiahleigh Palmer’s foster father and accused killer Rick Thorburn was permitted to run a daycare business for five months after the schoolgirl’s death despite being a person of interest in the investigation, it has been revealed.

Lawyers representing Oregon foster children have filed a class action lawsuit in federal court asking a judge to end the Oregon Department of Human Services' practice of housing foster children in hotels and state offices.

In a lawsuit against Oregon, a little girl's guardian claims the Department of Human Services certified a man as a foster father and placed her with him even though he told DHS that he was "a sex addict" with "obsessions and compulsions with pornography and strip clubs."

Individuals who as children were removed from their biological families are the nation’s highest risk group to suicide. They are four times at risk than the nation’s highest population risk group to suicide; the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population of the Kimberley which is the world’s second highest population risk group to suicide – behind Greenland’s Inuit peoples.

A blue-ribbon commission created to oversee reform of Clark County’s “broken” child welfare system reported Monday that the agencies that work to keep kids safe have made progress, implementing training for various players and streamlining and clarifying court procedures.

Among the major milestones reported by the Blue Ribbon for Kids Commission: a new waiver program allowing money allotted for safety services in foster homes to be used for safety services at family homes in some circumstances. That change alone has allowed nearly 400 kids to stay out of foster homes since July 2015, said welfare experts discussing a nearly 50-page progress report Monday.

Last month, J.K. Rowling sent sent out a series of tweets denouncing the practice of volountourism in orphanages, and the support of orphanages in general. It is risky to make broad statements against orphanages, hereafter referred to as children’s centers, that often serve as community hubs where vulnerable children can seek refuge. The reasoning why children’s centers may be necessary cannot be looked at in either black or white, because there are many bad ones out there, we need to eliminate all of them. Wouldn’t it be easy if things worked that way? I believe certain children’s centers have their place in society when they offer protection, shelter, and care to vulnerable children who would otherwise end up on the street, at risk of being trafficked, continue to be abused in all forms, or remain outcast from their communities. By our definition, ‘vulnerable children’ refers to any child that has or is at risk of suffering abuse, being trafficked, abandoned or otherwise in imminent danger due to lack of parental care.

Foster youth advocates and Bay Area legislators on Monday told a panel of state officials that the alarming conclusions of a recent state audit highlighting California’s weak oversight of psychiatric drugs for foster kids could be solved if Gov. Jerry Brown signs three pieces of key legislation into law this week.

Armed service members, including unmarried parents and those who have spouses in the military, must prepare a “family care plan” prior to deployment to ensure the welfare of their family members. Failure to have a valid family plan can result in disciplinary action against the soldier and also prevent deployment.

Queensland's Child Safety Minister Shannon Fentiman says child protection groups do not want her to quit over the foster care implications from the Tiahleigh Palmer murder case, despite the LNP's call for her resignation.

Foster youth advocates and Bay Area legislators on Monday told a panel of state officials that the alarming conclusions of a recent state audit highlighting California’s weak oversight of psychiatric drugs for foster kids could be solved if Gov. Jerry Brown signs three pieces of key legislation into law this week.

The 52-year-old actor is also hoping to see the six children he shares with Jolie soon, the source adds. Jolie and the kids are currently living in a rental in Malibu, California, where they've been since news of Jolie and Pitt's split broke last Tuesday.

In the U.S., the chance of having your teen or child abducted is vanishingly small, around 0.00007%, or one in 1.4 million annually, according to Daniel Gardner in his book The Science of Fear: How the Culture of Fear Manipulates Your Brain. The most common cause of preventable death for kids is car crashes, so it’s actually far more dangerous to drive your child to and from school (perhaps to prevent them from being kidnapped) than it is to let them walk.

A Henderson County family is weighing options after learning last week that someone adopted their grandson without their knowledge after his mother died last year, and that a Transylvania County foster-care provider suspected of abusing him avoided prosecution due to a miscommunication between law enforcement agencies.

Australian children are removed from their families more often than anywhere in the Western world, nearly twice as often as in the US and almost three times the rate in New Zealand, a parlia­mentary inquiry into child welfare has heard.

In 1978 Congress passed the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) in recognition of, and in an attempt to fix rampant abuse within child protection measures applying to Native American children. ICWA is still in place today, and is an important issue to understand, especially for those living and adopting in areas where placements may involve members of Native American tribes.

One morning in September 2014, when Jahnira Jones had just started seventh grade at Richard Allen Prep Charter School, her after-school plans weighed on her mind. She was supposed to take SEPTA to meet her mother near City Hall. "I was scared to go downtown," said Jahnira, now 15. It would be her first time taking public transit alone.

While suspension and expulsion rates across Chicago Public Schools have dropped significantly over the past four years, minority students are still far more likely to receive school punishment than their peers.

The Kansas Department for Children and Families’ foster care system complied with federal standards for protecting children from abuse and neglect, according to a federal review highlighted in a newly released state audit.

But the agency failed to reach substantial compliance on two-thirds of the benchmarks examined, the review found.

Nebraska’s child welfare caseloads are a primary obstacle to keeping maltreated children safe and delivering quality services, according to the state’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) for Nebraska Child Welfare. Responses to child abuse reports are not appropriately coordinated between local law enforcement and child welfare staff with the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). No policies exist within the Juvenile Probation Department or DHHS to guide front line child welfare workers on how cases should be handled when children and families are involved in both systems.

Indianapolis Public Schools says one of their schools waited several days to file a report with the Indiana Department of Child Services after learning of allegations that a five-year-old was inappropriately touched on school grounds.

For decades, child welfare authorities operated under the assumption that the best course for children who had been neglected or abused was to remove them from their homes and place them in foster care or group homes.

But years of studying outcomes and advances in neuroscience have confirmed that children removed from their families experience intense trauma that can last a lifetime.

California Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a measure Sunday that would have subsidized diapers for needy families on government assistance. Brown said the measure represented an end run around the budget process.

It’s been an important time for more than 40,000 Australian children in foster care and for thousands more who will follow them because their families cannot look after them. In Brisbane, the murder of Tiahleigh Palmer, 12, allegedly by her foster carer, set loud alarm bells ringing, with the Palaszczuk government announcing an investigation of the sector.

Sunday, September 25, 2016

The action came after one of their neighbors allowed his adult daughter and her two preschool-aged children to stay at his makeshift cabin for several days during the summer, according to local homeless advocates and several campsite residents.

Although all are technically squatting on private land, reports of children living outside were enough to spur action from Prince William County social workers, who visited the campsite in August and called on the fire marshal to declare the structures unfit for habitation.

Many of us have heard stories about a single mom who receives training for a better paying job, but then turns down the job offer because she would lose more in welfare benefits than the pay raise would provide. These stories are often mistakenly disregarded as anecdotal.

Brad Pitt is going through the wringer. The ‘Allied’ actor hasn’t seen his six kids since Angelina Jolie filed for divorce on Sept. 19, according to a shocking new report. On top of that, his kids are constantly asking to see their daddy. So, does his estranged wife have anything to do with it?

Note: FYI: Due to this particular story and the fact that it has turned into a media circus that has flooded my news feeds with hundreds of repetitive articles, I have had to develop a new method of working with them. I honestly wish I had done this years ago. It is saving me hours of work.

Saturday, September 24, 2016

What began last year with one county supervisor’s legal battle with Yolo County’s child-welfare system — followed by shake-ups at the agency overseeing child welfare and public scrutiny during the recent trial of a mother accused of causing her infant’s death — continues Tuesday with a workshop during the Board of Supervisors meeting.

The Kansas Department for Children and Families’ foster care system complied with federal standards for protecting children from abuse and neglect, according to a federal review highlighted in a newly released state audit.

Parental alienation is victimizing the lives of countless good families—parents and children—all over the world with devastating repercussions. To the alienated parent, it can be a dizzying feeling of helplessness that grips you while frantically searching for answers to stop what is happening.

A former foster carer from Ramsgate who sexually abused two children has been jailed.

Gary Teague, 57, who now lives near Canterbury, pleaded guilty to two counts of making an indecent photo – namely a video – of a child, but pleaded not guilty to two counts of abusing a position of trust by causing or inciting a child to engage in a sexual activity and two counts of recording another person doing a private act for his own sexual gratification.

Brad Pitt’s advisers suspect that Angelina Jolie is smearing his reputation so that she can win full custody of their children and move to New York to work for the United Nations, according to US media reports.

State Sen. Mike McGuire will head an oversight hearing Monday to publicly discuss the findings of a state audit criticizing county foster care systems, including Sonoma County’s, for not adequately monitoring the use of psychotropic drugs among local foster youth.

It happened outside the Butte County Social Welfare office in Chico on Carmichael Drive a few minutes after 10 a.m. this morning when police took custody of a two-year-old child left unattended at the Motel 6 earlier in the day.

A New Mexico state senator is formally requesting the Attorney General commission an independent investigation into any previous allegations of abuse involving 10-year-old Victoria Martens, who police say was drugged, sexually assaulted and brutally killed in August.

The guardian of a special-needs child claims in a federal lawsuit that the boy was sexually assaulted by his foster care father, forced to eat off the floor, starved and locked in his bedroom for weeks.

A year ago, Governor Asa Hutchinson put the Division of Children and Family Services in the spotlight following an evaluation that found a system in need of a fix. Now we are working to see where DHS says it has made progress and which problems still persist.

A longtime foster father, already accused of sexually abusing five of his adopted sons and endangering the welfare of two foster children, was charged on Thursday with abusing another boy in his home on Long Island.

State officials are housing 37 foster care children with severe emotional and behavioral issues in a repurposed former juvenile detention center in northeast Texas, a decision a ranking Texas senator said Thursday amounts to the “warehousing” of troubled youths in the state's care.

In 2009, when the economic devastation of the Great Recession was most widely felt, one in four American children struggled with hunger, according to a USDA report released at the time that President Obama called “unsettling.” As unemployment shot up after the housing collapse, the number of Americans enrolled in the food stamp program hit record high after record high. The richest nation in the world was facing a hunger crisis—and children were among the most vulnerable.

If Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's divorce isn't already messy enough between rumors of cheating, substance abuse, and the custody battle, it's about to get a WHOLE lot worse now that the LAPD is reportedly investigating Pitt for child abuse!

Mame Neta Attocknie, a three-month old baby was reported dead, Tuesday after her foster father allegedly left her in the car in Geronimo, Oklahoma, KFOR News is reporting. The three-month-old baby had allegedly been forgotten in the car for nine hours while the foster father was asleep.

Washington’s Department of Social and Health Services faces what internal documents reveal is a crisis in finding places to house foster children – kids removed from their parents’ homes as a result of neglect or abuse. Many young people are being shuttled between hotels and emergency housing.

Wednesday, September 21, 2016

On a Facebook page called “Kentucky Kids Matter,” state child protection workers say Kentucky’s system is in crisis and children are in danger.

“We have a crisis going on that should be concerning to all people as our children are in serious danger due to the current conditions of child protective services,” said Jeff Culver, a Jefferson County child protection supervisor for the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services.

Tiahleigh Palmer's foster father Rick Thorburn, who has been charged with murder over the 12-year-old's death, has been taken to hospital after collapsing in the Beenleigh watch house on Tuesday afternoon.

When I read about the crisis in Texas foster care system, all I can think about is my beautiful younger sister Nannette. Nannette got out of foster care, but she didn't survive. She became a statistic, a victim of the consequences of what experts call adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs. Research has shown that ACEs accumulate over time, and the number of these experiences in childhood predicts morbidity and mortality in adulthood. It doesn't say it on her death certificate, but Nannette died from too many ACEs.

Ten years after western Kentucky social service aide Boni Frederick was slain on the job, state social workers are asking lawmakers to address what they say is a crisis at the Department for Community Based Services, the agency that investigates child abuse and neglect.

When foster children spend the night in a hotel or in a foster home that agrees to keep them for only one night at a time, they typically don’t make it to school the next day. Instead, they sit in a Washington Department of Social and Health Services office. Over-stretched social workers must take turns babysitting them, while also trying to manage dozens of other cases.

Prompted by the death of an 11-year-old boy found emaciated and malnourished in the closet of an Echo Park home, county supervisors voted Tuesday to re-evaluate an assessment tool designed to identify children at risk of abuse or neglect.

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are getting a divorce, but it wasn’t a snap decision. Angie and Brad did everything they could to try and repair their relationship, and a new report says that the couple was even planning to adopt a seventh child in order to save their marriage! Get all of the bittersweet details here.

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